Guinea pigs, are we ?

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Anonymous
Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376

Some reads on pharmacos' modus operandi : http://www.pharmedout.org/

"Confessions of a drug pusher"  Gwen Olsen

"Overdosed America: the broken promise of American Medicine" John Abramson

"Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients" Ray Moynihan

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  • MariannaLaFrance
    MariannaLaFrance Member Posts: 777
    edited May 2011

    I'll have to take a read. I hosted my bookclub last month and our book was "Hard Sell" by Jamie Reidy. It's really a book about how much sales teams influenced doctors and the pharma sales guy's lifestyle, but it was interesting to note that most of our very educated group didn't really give a flip about pharma's influence on the way medicine is practiced. I am not opposed to having medicines available, but when our system is based on patients blindly taking what BP is giving out, I am very opposed. I think Big Pharma makes the Oil & Gas guys look like babies playing in a sandbox!!

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited May 2011

    Marianna, if your book club friends had to deal with something as serious as cancer, they would have no choice but to get educated about the subject like most of us have to do.

    I used to work in a hospital setting and having to deal with these very aggressive sales reps ruined any good day for me.  Doctors are targets and identified as high or low-volume prescribers. 

    Will also have to add to the list of books to read, cannot keep up !!  The book by Olsen is probably a must read for first-hand insider account.

    Funny how my own BS when asked by another patient why he was not also an onco said peeew don't trust the drug pushers....that had me kinda scared and worried Frown

    Your last sentence metaphor is right on :)

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited May 2011

    Just found another link:

    Dr. Shiv Chopra is a world renowned scientist, author and public speaker. As a former employee of Health Canada (the Canadian equivalent of the US FDA) for 35 years, he was the Senior Scientific Advisor for the regulatory assessment of food and drugs, including new vaccines. When he changed job titles from human prescription drugs to the Bureau of Veterinary Drugs, the first file that landed on his desk was Eli Lilly's application to use rBGH in Canada.

    In this interview he discusses subjects covered in his most recent book, Corrupt to the Core, which chronicles his many decades fighting for scientific principles against profit-hungry corporations and ultimately against his own bosses and the Canadian government itself.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited May 2011

    I know Hadley, will be extremely upsetting, stomach turning and nightmarish to read.  I put it out there for those who want real, cold, hard facts.

    MY real cold hard fact is that the pharmacos have left me bald for "life".

    I believe some of them are haunting this site playing "Mr. Dress Up" and enjoying themselves tremendously.

    Michael Moore is a lamb in this horror story. 

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited May 2011
  • hymil
    hymil Member Posts: 826
    edited May 2011

    I don't want to be a guinea-pig or part of a huge pharma experiment either, but your little ones are sooo beautiful in that picture. I guess your BS went for surgery instead of drug-pushing, seems the doctors have to choose fundamentally whether to be butchers or magicians. I mean surgeons or physicians. you can be a guy with a knife or a guy with a bottle of poison... and that's just the good-guys.  Oh, I'm forgetting the guys with the rayguns they are the radiologists....

    Im sorry you are having to deal with permanent side effects of medication. My LE is a permanent side-effect of surgery. And who knows all the long term effects of the radiotherapy. I'm still grateful it was a breast i had to have removed, and not a leg or an eye.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited May 2011

    Thanks Hymil, it,s a real big and hard pill to swallow. Being stage 3, they threw everything they could at me. Onco never told me about the danger of Taxotere, i.e. permanent hair loss. One would think that with the zillions, they could do better than these archaic, toxic poisons. Anyway, i dont want to get started....

  • hymil
    hymil Member Posts: 826
    edited May 2011
    Before I had BC i used to think "slash and burn" was all about abuse of the Amazonian rainforests.  Now i know it's about brave women ( and a few brave men too).  There has to be a better way. Cry
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2011

    "Pharmaceutical researcher going to prison for fraud faking research for 13 years

    Friday, March 18th, 2011 at 12:56 pm  

    Has anyone taken his drugs or are aware they did ?

    It's being called the largest research fraud in medical history. Dr. Scott Reuben, a former member of Pfizer's speakers' bureau, has agreed to plead guilty to faking dozens of research studies that were published in medical journals.

    Dr. Reuben has reportedly signed a plea agreement that will require him to return 0,000 that he received from drug companies. He also faces up to a 10-year prison sentence and a 0,000 fine.

    He was also fired from his job at the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. after an internal audit there found that Dr. Reuben had been faking research data for 13 years.
    Reuben was considered a prolific and influential researcher in pain management, and his purported findings altered the way millions of patients are treated for pain during and after orthopedic surgeries but it was all a fraud some of the drugs were that of Celebrex and Lyrica that were frauds and can be actually dangerous."

    http://familyfraud.com/pharmaceutical-researcher-going-to-prison-for-fraud-faking-research-for-13-years-u-may-be-taking-those-drugs.htm

    http://www.naturalnews.com/028194_Scott_Reuben_research_fraud.html

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-medical-madoff-anesthestesiologist-faked-data

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2011

    OK, GIRLS, LET'S ALL GET ON THE DR. OZ SITE

    AND ASK THAT THE GOOD DOCTOR BURZYNSKI BE INTERVIEWED !!!!

    http://www.doctoroz.com/plugger?tid=637

  • luv_gardening
    luv_gardening Member Posts: 1,393
    edited June 2011

    For those who haven't yet read this yet, it's the article about Dr John Ioannidis.

    Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science 

    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/8269/

    Why Most Published Research Findings Are False
    John P. A. Ioannidis

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/ 

  • thats-life-
    thats-life- Member Posts: 1,075
    edited June 2011

    hi luan and JLW, im going to make a coffee, sit down, and work my way through these links :)

  • luv_gardening
    luv_gardening Member Posts: 1,393
    edited June 2011

    Luan, I'm curious why they assigned you stage 3?  Did you have nodes that had stuck together?  I hope you don't mind me asking.  Also, do you know which chemo left you bald?  Was it one of the taxols which is known to cause long term baldness?  Do you have any hair and how do you manage?  I complain about my thinning grey hair and my grandmother was almost bald so I'm afraid the Tamoxifen will do the same to me one day.  

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2011

    Do you know that the whole Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October was dreamed up by the company that makes Tamoxifen?  True story!  They figured it would motivate more women to get mammograms, which meant more women would get diagnosed and then more women would take Tamoxifen and they would get rich.  

    Here's a link-

    http://www.preventcancer.com/patients/mammography/awareness.htm

  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited June 2011

    Kate--------------------cluckem'em

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2011

    Hi girls, welcome !!!!!

    Thanks for the links, am sure glad things are coming out of the closet :)

    Joy, re stage 3, two tumors were found in same breast, first one on palpation, second one on biopsy from surgery (dirty margins), so 2 lumpectomies within three weeks :(( also my sentinel had gone extra capsular = systemic. Got TAC which is brutal. I correspond with a group of ladies who have been on Taxotere and have regrowth problems, quite a few people are coming out with this. Not only women, but men with other types of cancer. My hair has come back out like a babie's you know? Very fine and sparse, It,s growing, but cannot go without a wig, snifff :(((( My onco never ever warned about the permanent hair loss from the taxotere, and acts like this is real big news to him, as if .....

  • luv_gardening
    luv_gardening Member Posts: 1,393
    edited June 2011

    Luan, I mentioned at the cancer centre that I was attending that there was no warning on the literature about permanent hair loss.  Their attitude was that they'd never seen it so it must be too rare to mention.  They also told me they'd never seen osteonecrosis of the jaw so it must be pretty safe to take bisphosphonates.  I refused.  I'm working on strengthening my bones any way I can, but now that she put me on Tamoxifen "because it strengthens the bones" I find that I'll lose more bone when it's withdrawn than it can build.  Withdrawal of Tam is the same as withdrawal of estrogen and causes increased bone loss for a few years just like menopause.  Why can't they inform us correctly?  Guinea pigs indeed.

  • suzanneinphoenix
    suzanneinphoenix Member Posts: 208
    edited June 2011
    OMG!  Just have to say that those are the cutest little piggies I've ever seen Laughing
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2011

    Susan, really disgusting Yell and I'm sure there's a whole lot more dirt out there that we don't know about !  yet......

    Joy, I've been taking a calcium/magnesium combo for years and years.  Had a bone scan at dx and the technician said she had never seen such good results on people even younger than me  Smile  The mag helps me with sleep problems and I take the supp with my second vit D and fish oil sup - all need each other for better absorption.

    Here's how I look, wish I was 1 again.....

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2011

    WOW, Kate and Joy, am speechless but will scream so loud if they tell me I have to have another mammogram.  Will insist on MRIs:

    "Cancer Risks from Breast Compression
    As early as 1928, physicians were warned to handle "cancerous breasts with care- for fear of accidentally disseminating cells" and spreading cancer (7). Nevertheless, mammography entails tight and often painful compression of the breast, particularly in premenopausal women. This may lead to distant and lethal spread of malignant cells by rupturing small blood vessels in or around small, as yet undetected breast cancers (8)."

  • Member_of_the_Club
    Member_of_the_Club Member Posts: 3,646
    edited June 2011

    Mammograms don't spread cancer, period.  Thats absurd.  Breasts with cancer in them do not have to be handled like fragile eggs.  Many of us were athletes before our cancer was diagnosed and exercise did not spread our cancer.  There is NO science to support this idea.

     MRIs are fine but they do have a higher rate of false positives, so they lead to more biopsies. 

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2011
  • Member_of_the_Club
    Member_of_the_Club Member Posts: 3,646
    edited June 2011

    Oh, I'm not going to disagree about the limitations of mammograms.  Trust me, a mammogram failed to detect my cancer.  But this idea that the compression causes metastasis is absurd.  Also, MRIs can be more sensitive but, as I said, they have more false positives.  And I've been told that there are some breast cancers that are missed by MRIs and picked up by mammograms.  I have both.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2011

    Mammograms' Value in Cancer Fight at Issue

    "In the new study, mammograms, combined with modern treatment, reduced the death rate by 10 percent, but the study data indicated that the effect of mammograms alone could be as low as 2 percent or even zero. A 10 percent reduction would mean that if 1,000 50-year-old women were screened over a decade, 996 women rather than 995.6 would not die from the cancer - an effect so tiny it may have occurred by chance"

    http://www.medicexchange.com/Mammography/mammograms-value-in-cancer-fight-at-issue.html

  • Member_of_the_Club
    Member_of_the_Club Member Posts: 3,646
    edited June 2011

    I think the whole mammogram thing is in flux.  First of all, the technology underwent a major change a few years ago with the switch to digital.  Its much more effective and uses much less radiation.  Its the younger women who really benefit from early detection, yet they are the ones least likely to have their cancer detected via mammogram because of their dense breasts.  Digital mammograms are much better at detecting cancer in women with dense breasts.  I sometimes wonder if the recommendations that women have screening mammograms at older ages have it backwards.  Older women are the ones who tend to have the less aggressive cancers, against which early detection won't make as much of a difference.  But for younger women, early detection can make all the difference. 

    The benefit in survival is not the only benefit from early detection.  Catching a cancer sooner often means less treatment, which can make a HUGE quality of life difference. 

  • Hindsfeet
    Hindsfeet Member Posts: 2,456
    edited June 2011

    Mammogram caught my first two high grade, como type dcis. I was told by the radiologist doctor that after the biopsy it seem as if it was breaking out of the ducts. I have no idea what that means, but I'm glad they found the 2+ C dcis before it became invasive. One year later the mammo showed a linear line of microcalifications. The final biopsy showed that over a huge amount of the tissue was dotted with high grade, como-n dcis. I'm for alternative medicine, but will consider conventional screening if I can't afford anything else. 

    But last December, the mri found another type of cancer that would not have shown up on a mammo. There are risk with mri as well. Usually, if they find suspecious area in the mammo they will also do an mri. Unfortunately most insurances only cover conventional types of screening, which leaves little choice but to do the mammo's and mri's.

    Safety? My opinion it is safest to be screened (doesn't matter to me how) than find out before the cancer spreads. Mammo' & mri's do help find cancers early.

    I'm due for my annual mammogram. I am gritting my teeth...I don't want to go there again. I can see myself waiting a year. If I do that then I will miss the annual mri? I wonder if I should just get mri's from now on due to all the scar tissue I have?

    BTW...not true that younger women are more likely to get the fast agressive growing cancers. I have had several friends who are older, who were dx with aggressive cancer. Two of them died within two months of dx. The others are struggling with stage IV cancers. They were all menapausal or post. My first two dx were grade 3 and like my doc said if it broke from the ducts it would had been very aggressive.  

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2011

    Evebarry, what about U/S and MRI ?
    Maybe women with large breast don,t feel as much pain with the mammo, but i have small dense breast,
    little fat to protect the glands, and mammos are extremely painful. My body tells me that it is not a good thing :((

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